1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a LGP (light guide plate) plate-to-plate (P2P) manufacturing method and a structure thereof which is applied to a LCD (liquid crystal display) backlight module. More particularly, the present invention relates to the LGP plate-to-plate manufacturing method utilizing mechanical extrusion and UV curing non-synchronously or synchronously and the structure manufactured thereby.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 7,862,223, entitled “Thin and flexible light guide element,” discloses a thin and flexible light guide element and a manufacturing method thereof. The thin and flexible light guide element comprises: a first optical layer or substrate composed of a flexible transparent material; a second optical layer formed on the lower side of the first optical layer or substrate and having a light-adjusting structure to change the light path; and a third optical layer formed on the upper side of the first optical layer or substrate and having a convex-concave structure to homogenize the light emitted from the first optical layer or substrate, wherein the first and second optical layers have different refractive indices.
The second optical layer is formed by a first composition coated on the lower-side surface of the first optical layer or substrate. The first composition includes a mixture of a UV curing resin monomer and a photo initiator. Furthermore, the third optical layer is formed in the same way by a second composition coated on the upper-side surface of the first optical layer or substrate. The second composition includes an anti-static agent, a UV curing resin, organic particles and an additive. The additive is selected from a thermal setting resin, a thermal plastic resin and a mixture thereof.
Accordingly, the first and second optical layers have relatively different refractive indices. In manufacturing, the second and third optical layers are continuously produced by a series of roll-to-roll (R2R) procedures. Namely, each of the second and third optical layers is separately formed by a curing process on each of the lower-side and upper-side surfaces of the first optical layer or substrate.
In order to form the second and third optical layers on the different two sides of the first optical layer or substrate, there require several coating and curing processes in different sides. However, the double-side coating and curing processes applied to a single thin film or plate are complex and difficult. Disadvantageously, this results in an increase of the manufacturing cost.
Consequently, there exists a need of providing a simplified method for producing such a thin and flexible light guide element. U.S. Pat. No. 7,862,223, is incorporated herein by reference for purposes including, but not limited to, indicating the background of the present invention and illustrating the state of the art.
As is described in greater detail below, the present invention provides a simplified LGP plate-to-plate manufacturing method and a structure thereof. A first integrated (extruded) microstructure is extruded on a first surface of an optical substrate and a second microstructure is formed on the optical substrate non-synchronously or synchronously in such a way as to mitigate and overcome the above problem.